I'm older now, and simple beer pleasures are the most meaningful to me. They tend to be encountered locally. It is my aim to get unplugged and explore some of them, slowly and thoughtfully. I'd tell you where it's leading, except that I've no idea ... and that's the whole point of the journey: To find out.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Lew Bryson: "It was pretty much an article of faith that the very Beer Gods were German, with maybe a small antechamber in the pantheon for the Czechs."

The first week of March was difficult.

Seven years on the Brewers of Indiana Guild was a hard habit to break, and while my final BIG conference and annual meeting was wonderful, time before and after it spent in mourning wasn't conducive to writing about beer. Slowly, the recovery has taken hold. Day by day, you know.

I kept this article back, thinking there might be something to say, but Lew doesn't need my supplementary testimony.

I'll add only that these past two or three years has been about rediscovering my inner lager. As in so many other areas of personal interest, freeing my brain from the constant stress of beer wars-laden trench warfare is having an amazingly salutary effect.

We're visiting Tallinn, Estonia in April, with a side excursion to Finland. I've done the research and know which bar and breweries are "craft." They won't be the only ones I sample.

... Why crown lager with this success in craft beer “culture,” on the craft beer “scene,” in the craft beer “niche”? Could it be lager’s smooth body, purity of flavor, or the way cold-aged lager tastes great at that natural maturation temperature? Maybe it’s the way lager is just good to drink and doesn’t crush your tastebuds with bitterness, or draw up your entire oral cavity with astringent burnt malt character, or pucker you up like a love-struck chimp with acidity and loosen your bowels with bacteria? (Don’t worry, I signed the loyalty pledge: “I, Lew Bryson, love IPAs, imperial stouts, sours and wild ales. They are the bestest.”) Could it be because we just needed another beer to crown as “the next IPA”?